Virender Sehwag and Dharmendra have more than just an iconic name in common. Their careers started off with great dash and promise and for a while they delivered a wide variety of gems (amidst some minor blips). And as they grew older but refused to acknowledge that fact in their performances, watching them was like watching an extended blooper reel. And just like Garam Dharam did in the late 1990s, a couple of decades later, the butcher of Najafgarh looks destined to fade away similarly (much as I had feared in a post from a little over six months back).
I've had the good fortune to have followed more or less his entire career and have watched him play some fabulous knocks and deliver some spectacular results for India (particularly in the subcontinent). My favourite two innings of his both came in 2008. The first was his comeback hundred in Adelaide to help save the game and where he showed the potential to grind his way and mould his innings to the situation for the first time. And the second was the spectacular double hundred at Galle when all others were floundering against Murali and Mendis. However, I never really warmed to him the way I did to Tendulkar, Dravid, or Laxman (not to mention a legion of foreign batsmen). Primarily I think it was the fact that he never ever seemed inclined to put in the extra yard to make the most of his talent. Whether it was battling through a tough session when not in form or putting in the diving stop, Sehwag always gave off a "this-is-how-I-play" attitude. Which was great when it came off but looked silly when it didn't. And while I wouldn't be as harsh on him as Dileep Premachandran is in this piece, stats don't lie over a long period and it cannot be denied that Sehwag never came close to fulfilling his potential outside of India. To label him better or even comparable to Gavaskar amongst Indian openers is laughable to say the least (though that piece by Ramachandra Guha is eminently readable otherwise). Overall, Sehwag averaged 35.36 in matches outside the subcontinent (excluding Zimbabwe) whereas Gavaskar averaged 51.57. In Tests India won outside the subcontinent during his career (again excluding Zimbabwe), Sehwag averages 24.66 whereas Gavaskar averaged 50.40. Clearly Sehwag had a major problem on the pitches of Eng, Aus, SA, WI, and NZ which he never came close to addressing. And all this is without even going into his ODI game which if anything is an even greater story of unfulfilled potential given that in limited overs games pitches are on average much more benign and therefore this weakness could be covered somewhat easily.
All that looks to be in the past now though. With his dropping midway through a historic series win for India where the batting young guns carried them through, it looks like we're unlikely to see Sehwag come out to open for India (in any format) ever again. And funnily enough, the thing I will miss about him is not the audacity and the effortless drives, but the smile he mostly seemed to have on his face and the perennial air of "this is only a game, why's everyone being so serious" that he had about him. In an increasingly business like world, that spirit is something many people (sporting or otherwise) would do well to imbibe to a degree. His talent may have been unfulfilled but I doubt that Sehwag will lose sleep over it and so maybe we shouldn't on his behalf either. Like Dharmendra, here was another Jat who gave us lots of joy and lots of great moments and when the sun sets on his career, that's all we really need to remember.
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